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International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Modeling and Using Context

CONTEXT 2019: Modeling and Using Context pp 161–174Cite as

Compositionality and Contextuality: The Symbolic and Statistical Theories of Meaning

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 11939))

Abstract

Compositionality and contextuality give two fundamental principles of linguistic analysis, and yet there is a conflict between them as Burge, Dummett, and others find. Here we aim at elucidating conceptual views underlying their tension in light of both symbolic and statistical paradigms of semantics, arguing, inter alia, that: (i) the conflict is a case of vicious circle analogous to hermeneutic circularity, and may be understood as a tension between symbolic and statistical semantics; (ii) the productivity, systematicity, and learnability of language can be accounted for in accordance with the principle of contextuality as well as compositionality; and (iii) the Chomsky versus Norvig debate on the (symbolic versus statistical) nature of language may be considered a broader manifestation of the tension in the form of the traditional conflict in philosophy between rationalist and empiricist worldviews. We conclude the paper with an outlook for the Kantian synthesis of them, especially the categorical integration of symbolic and statistical AI.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Hakubi Centre for Advanced Research, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Yoshihiro Maruyama

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  1. Yoshihiro Maruyama
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Correspondence to Yoshihiro Maruyama .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Trento, Trento, Italy

    Gábor Bella

  2. University of Trento, Trento, Italy

    Paolo Bouquet

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Maruyama, Y. (2019). Compositionality and Contextuality: The Symbolic and Statistical Theories of Meaning. In: Bella, G., Bouquet, P. (eds) Modeling and Using Context. CONTEXT 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11939. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34974-5_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34974-5_14

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-34973-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-34974-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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